First Presbyterian Church Archives - Page 12 of 13

Home Repair Workcamp coming to Albany in June

Since 1977, over a quarter of a million youth have participated in this program providing more than 6 million hours of volunteer service around the country.

Picture purloined from nationalservice.gov

There will be an Albany Home Repair Group Workcamp, June 29th to July 5th, 2014. This week-long junior and senior high work camp is co-sponsored by the City of Albany and the First Presbyterian Church of Albany, in conjunction with Group Cares Mission Trips. The participants will be housed at Myers Middle School. Participants gather together for large group meetings, eat in the cafeteria, and sleep on classroom floors.

The average camp size is 300-400 students from around the country, along with adult chaperones and Group staff members. Student volunteers work under the supervision of an adult with construction experience. These adults are supported by others with additional knowledge and construction skills.

There will be approximately 65 individual projects worked on this week, including painting, and the construction or repair of wheelchair ramps, porches, and porch stairs. This will be done at no cost to homeowners or occupants. The homes being repaired have been identified by agencies that work directly with the city of Albany, plus neighborhood organizations and churches. Materials are being donated.

Construction sites and families are visited several times in preparation for the Workcamp. Descriptions of the requested work are recorded and signed-off on prior to the arrival of the volunteers. Building materials will be delivered to all sites prior to the beginning of the week.

Homeowners or residents are expected to be on the property during each day of the construction week; family members or close friends may take their place, though, if needed. Because of the possibility that not all volunteers who register will come, there can be no guarantees that every approved job can be done. However, all jobs that are begun will be finished.

Since 1977, over a quarter of a million youth have participated in this program providing more than 6 million hours of volunteer service around the country. Group Cares, formerly Group Workcamps Foundation, a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization, works together with many types of partners to cosponsor volunteer service projects providing minor home repairs for elderly, disabled, or low-income residents.

Participants pay a registration fee, which covers the cost of food, lodging, programming, insurance, and a portion of the project materials. All participants are matched within a small crew that typically consists of one adult and five youth. Youth groups are split up to work with participants from other groups providing them with the opportunity to make new friends from across the nation.

Not only do the young people get to assist the elderly, disabled, and low-income families with home-repair projects they cannot manage themselves, they support local agencies with their backlog of home-repair and weatherization projects. At the same time, the students receive a cross-cultural service experience for young people, helping them to grow in their Christian faith through service.

The youth of First Presbyterian Church of Albany have participated in similar activities in past summers, traveling to other cities to do home and building repairs. First Presbyterian Church of Albany is located on the corner of State and Willett Streets. The Pastors are Glenn and Miriam Leupold.

The Lydster, Part 119: The Lion King

The Lion King: March 2, at 12:15 pm, at First Presbyterian, 362 State Street, Albany, NY.

This is what The Daughter will be doing this weekend, playing the young Nala in The Lion King. So far, the only Christian adaptation I’ve seen is the song He Lives In You will be God Lives In You. There are Equity (professional) actors playing Scar and another role.

It would seem unseemly, I suppose, for me to say that my daughter is the best dancer of the kids performing. There was a sample of the production at church on February 16. Now, if a half dozen people, unsolicited, tell The Wife and/or me that The Daughter was great in that dance number, perhaps the best in the troupe, we shan’t become TOO proud, even though we might agree. Though she’s no longer taking ballet, I think the experience has served her well.

She has worked very hard learning her dialogue and the songs as well. If you’re in Albany on March 2, stop on by.

First Friday, October 4, at 1st Presbyterian

K is for Killing

The current debate over gun violence likely will not be ended so easily.

My church, First Presbyterian Church in Albany, NY, is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. The church donated some artifacts to the Albany Institute of History & Art, itself founded in 1791. The Institute has an exhibit, ongoing through April 17, showing some of the church history over the years.

Some of the church members included John Jay, eventually the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury; and Aaron Burr, third Vice-President of United States, and the first NOT to go on to become President.

After Burr killed Hamilton in a duel in 1804, the pastor Eliphalet Nott delivered a jeremiad against dueling. As it was a particularly long and significant sermon, it was published by the Dutch Reformed Church in Albany. (I listened to the re-enacted speech a few years ago.) Eliphalet Nott had the remarkable effect of, almost singlehandedly, effectively ending what had been considered an “honorable” way for gentlemen to settle their differences.

The current debate over gun violence likely will not be ended so easily. The solutions seem to be fewer guns on one side, more guns on the other. The latter group clings to the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution: “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The notion of a militia, to me, seems to be a state-run National Guard.

In any case, here’s a list of murders with firearms (most recent) by country. And here are twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States. Nothing here, I suspect, will change anyone’s mind about the next steps to take. No Eliphalet Nott sermon will save the day anymore.

ABC Wednesday – Round 12

Video review: The Prince of Egypt

I was so very nervous Sunday morning that my stomach was a vat of acid.

The odd thing about being in the production of The Prince of Egypt musical is that I had never seen the Dreamworks animated film on which it was based until the day before we performed the play at church. And I had had a copy of the video for weeks.

The storyline by Philip LaZebnik and Nicholas Meyer I found to be quite compelling. I had to go back and read the source material, which started in the Old Testament book of Exodus, Chapter 2. There isn’t much there between Moses’ birth as a Jew (placed in a basket in a river to avoid being slaughtered, and taken in by Pharoah’s wife) and him all grown up. So the notion of the fraternal relationship between Moses and Rameses, the son of Pharaoh, made sense. When Moses discovered the secret of his birth, he was understandably conflicted.

The visuals of The Prince of Egypt were quite pleasing; an extra segment with the DVD addressed the process. There were some heavy hitters as voice actors: Val Kilmer as Moses (and also God); Ralph Fiennes as Rameses; Michelle Pfeiffer as Tzipporah (Moses’ eventual wife); Sandra Bullock as Miriam (Moses’ sister); Jeff Goldblum as Aaron (Moses’ brother); Danny Glover as Jethro (Moses’ father-in-law); Patrick Stewart as Seti (the elder Pharaoh); Helen Mirren as The Queen; and Steve Martin and Martin Short as Hotep and Huy (sycophants to the Pharaohs). Martin and Short were the comedy relief, but not in an over-the-top manner that some Disney films,

A criticism of the film is that it takes itself too seriously, not enough fun. I think the conflict of the story makes the approach to the topic with reverence. Yet there was plenty of fun stuff early on, particularly a spectacular chariot race. And it IS a story about slavery and oppression and getting away from the same. I rather preferred this Roger Ebert quote: “If de Mille had seen this film, he would have gone back to the drawing board!”
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I suppose I should mention that the play went much better than I would have thought, after the dress rehearsal the day before. The leads were particularly good.

As for me, I was so very nervous Sunday morning that my stomach was a vat of acid. I couldn’t remember the lyrics that morning I knew the previous afternoon, or hardly ANY lyrics; a panic attack that I haven’t experienced in years. Finally, I did my part; I muffed one line near the end, but I guess it went OK. More fun was playing God in the next scene.